Category Archives: Toowoomba

Drawing in Dad’s shed

I originally published this blog in January 2014. It is now September 2017 and Fathers Day in Australia. I though that I would share it again. These memories are timeless. 

 

I have a yearly visit home to Toowoomba (in Queensland) from Sydney at Christmas. It is a week or two catching up with friends and family and falling into a familiar routine. This usually includes de-cluttering cupboards and being highly distracted by childhood memories.

It also involves re-exploring my Dad’s workshed in the backyard. It is a step into the past. Dad died in 1987 and although much of the larger machinery and tools are gone, it still has shelves and cupboards of work tools and bit and pieces. Dad was a panel beater by trade and a handyman, inventor the rest of the time . He seemed to have every possible item to fix, nail, screw, clip, polish, cut, drill … The tools are stored in specially labelled  containers and drawers or hanging up above the workbench, on the wall. Most of these items are still there and have not been moved

So much of this is part of my childhood

01Jan12 the Shed
drawn in 2012

This year I decided to draw some more of it. These are all done in watercolour pencil and Lamy Safari Joy ink pen. If a clean out is ever done (hopefully this year) it may not be there next time I visit.

 
 
 
I stood in front of a wall and started drawing the tools and containers. I decided to add the colour to the (old Dixibelle margarine containers circa 1970).
 

 

 

 
 
I then drew the wall above the main workbench, over two pages. I was not sure where/if to add colour to the page. I do not need any of them in my life in Sydney, but wanted a memory. That gave me the idea to draw some of the tools on the page. I chose a few and bought them up to the house and drew they over two days.

 

This is what I did New Years Eve !  (wire strippers and washers)

 

a G-Clamp and pop rivets
 
 
This is what our dining table looked like New Years Eve – a drawing in progress 
 
 
 I have no idea what many of these objects are and the labels are a mystery. It was the job of my brother & I (and Mum to ) to sort through and to separate buckets of nuts and bolts ! I did not inherit my Dad’s mechanical and technical nature, although he also had a creative side (woodturning and pottery). This is not the first year I have drawn tools from the shed. Previous Christmas visits have also provided opportunities. I think I am done now.
 
 

05Dec10 Drawing from the shed 1 of 4050110 20f 4 shed drawing 050110 3 of 4 shed drawing 31Dec10 spirit level from the shed pt 1 31Dec10 spirit level from the shed pt 2 1 and 2 Jan11 drill attachments from the shed pt 2 1 and 2 jan11 drill attachments from the shed pt 1

a visit to the waterbird habitat

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This past week of Christmas holidays has been very busy and I have filled many pages of my sketchbook.  For this blog I decided to share one little series of sketches from a  morning walk.

28Dec15 ducks cropped

My mother and I had promised my nephew (age 9) that we would visit the local waterbird habitat and sketch the ducks. He had been there recently and videoed them. On the video he bravely started to name the ducks and then decided they were all called Geoffrey. (They are Australian Wood Ducks)

 

28Dec15 ducks2cropped 3

Unfortunately when Mum & I visited, there were hardly any ducks in sight. We sketched what we could. The ducks in the above sketch may be Geoffrey 5, Geoffrey 27 and Geoffrey 341.

28Dec15 sketcher

After a while I gave up and sketched the sketcher. Mum stayed still for ages !

28Dec15 ducks3

Then a family arrived with bread and the ducks came out of nowhere but moved a lot.  Sketches completed, the day was warming up, so we headed home.

Below are some links to more duck and nature pages I have previously sketched

I enjoy drawing nature and you can view some more of my Nature Drawing on my Flickr site

I have sketched and written about another  duck . The Pacific Black Duck

some previous step by step drawing blogposts on drawing feathers and nests

Drawing a Tawny Frogmouth feather

Drawing feathers

Drawing a small nest

and of course, Greeting cards featuring my feather and nest drawings are available to purchase on my Etsy online store